Anamorphic Adapter Inquiry: What would you like to see?

K

Kholi

Section Moderator
Alright kids. List it here. Add reasonable requests, post examples of pictures and video.

If you could see an anamorphic adapter within the next few months, what would you like to see? How would you like to attach it to your lenses?

For starters, here's what I'm thinking:

-Panasonic Design but higher quality glass.
-Up to 28mm Focal Length Support
-72 or 77mm Thread For Attachment with a Rotatable front end for secondary alignment
-Perhaps a pre-installed oval port for oval OOF highlight effect
-Flare Tastic as hell

List it up! And PS: This is worth the new thread. =D Trust me.

I want the HAWK look: http://www.claudiomiranda.com/lenstest/index.html -- See Claudio Miranda's RED Anamorphic Tests for reference.

Added to the list of Wishes from posts in this thread:

-- As lightweight as possible. Durable, yet light weight.
-- Close Focus (Able to at least get down to 3FT in distance, so long as the actual lens is able to do so)
-- Perhaps a Different mounting system? Instead of Screwn in Threads which can get time consuming when changing lenses.
-- Modern Lens coatings = No no. This could actually reduce cost significantly by the way.
-- As efficient as possible concerning light gathering, etc. But not really a huge deal.
-- As sharp as reasonably possible within a fair price range. Do you need a sharp frame across the field if you're anywhere above 5.6 anyway? Good question.
 
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It isn't easy to go wider than 50mm (33mm or about in spherical equivalent) in an adapter for vingetting reasons.
 
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mcgeedigital said:
I have nothing to add other than I'd give my right arm for one.
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I will open a new thread (Kholi, now that you open the season, you'll see what I am capable of :-) where it is possible to place a reservation for the first 50 units (anamorphic adapter for moving image capture). More information to come.
 
Emanuel, you're right about it not being "easy". =D But trust me when I say that I got it confirmed to be completely practical and doable.

Wider than 28mm will be a no for Full Frame, but it's a good choice to have even while sacrificing the very edges of frame to softness. I see this same image softness in major motion pictures all of the time: just look at Transformers' Anamorphic Moments.

Keep it coming
 
Emanuel said:
I will open a new thread (Kholi, now that you open the season, you'll see what I am capable of :-) where it is possible to place a reservation for the first 50 units (anamorphic adapter for moving image capture). More information to come.
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Yeah Emanuel! I'm down for that. The more options the better! Hehe. I just want sooner than later, myself.
 
Kholi said:
Emanuel, you're right about it not being "easy". =D But trust me when I say that I got it confirmed to be completely practical and doable.

Wider than 28mm will be a no for Full Frame, but it's a good choice to have even while sacrificing the very edges of frame to softness. I see this same image softness in major motion pictures all of the time: just look at Transformers' Anamorphic Moments.

Keep it coming
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This is also information coming from the ISCO's technical responsible regarding the potential of a new anamorphic adapter. Only maybe on the Iscorama 54. But this adapter is heavier and as far as I could find on the samples I've seen -- I wait for those coming from Anthony (squig), the Iscorama 54 is not as sharp as the smaller diameter ones.

Here's a sample @ 35mm focal (about 23/24mm in spherical equivalent):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/indonesiafoto/1509002440/in/photostream/

Maybe a matter of a disaligned setup or soft glass, who knows? But that's Nikkor glass!
 
I would be willing to pay up to $600 for a 35mm to 50mm equiv FOV anamorphic that is easily focusable.. f/stop at least 2.8
 
Booggerg -- Think Adapter instead of Prime lens. The prime lens path, while awesome, would take much more time to produce. An update Anamorphic Adapter, however, is definitely doable in the very near future.

I can't say anything about a price, however. That's dictated by demand and feature set.
 
With an Iscorama adapter you can go a way faster than f/2.8. There's just 1/3 stop loss. Add a Canon L glass 1.2 and you will go even faster than f/1.4 -- that's the point.
 
That's a good question. Should it be something like the front Element of the Isco or a Zoom Through Anamorphic attachment like the Panasonic 16:9?

I'm going for the Panasonic like attachment myself.

So, it would have a 77mm thread that you screw into your lens or attach in some other fashion (for speed and ease of moving from one lens to the other) and you could use it on whatever lens you want via step down rings if your lenses aren't already 77mm threaded.
 
The LA7200 mounts well to most any lens but it is difficult to get your lens to focus close up and at wide open apertures.

Something with better glass and tighter specs maybe similar to the Panny adapter that will still allow the full focus range at any aperture.
 
77mm threaded adapter makes the most sense for me for attachability. I can't really see any other solution at a price the majority of us could afford with the market as it is. That said, if an adapter with a 77mm thread gets built, it'll obviously have a much larger audience than just the 5D and obviously a market which will grow.

I can't really add anything new in what I'd be after - just very similar to what everybody else has said. 77mm threaded attachment makes the most sense for me compatibility wise. Obviously as minimal light loss as possible but it doesn't sound like that's really a problem and to be honest, I would only ever be using anamorphics on properly lit shoots so probably not really an issue to start with. I'm happy enough if it only really works on 50mm and up; on anamorphic that's wide enough for me but if it could work at wider focal lengths at the expense of corner softness, I'd be very happy indeed. And yeah, must be flaretastics (obvs) - none of these modern expensive lens coatings that destroy all the character.

Count me in
 
Octopi is right, you have to stop down to at least F11 to even start to achieve acceptable close focus on the panasonic adapter. For the new adapter, the ability to shoot wide open at all distances, close focus as well, and achieve a sharp image, would be incredible.
 
Jeff Nitzberg said:
Octopi is right, you have to stop down to at least F11 to even start to achieve acceptable close focus on the panasonic adapter. For the new adapter, the ability to shoot wide open at all distances, close focus as well, and achieve a sharp image, would be incredible.
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The trick will be what lenses you use behind the glass AND what sort of coating the anamorphic adapter has. For instance, while you may be using one specific canon prime with your adapter and have to stop down really far, another Prime in the Canon family or even a Nikon prime may work perfectly with it. So I'll add this to the list: Adapter be tested for the most popular lens kits.
If you think about how the 35mm Adapter Revolution went, it goes hand in hand. Just look at the Achromat created by Letus Corp. For quite some time EVERYONE struggled with soft sides on adapters. Then Letus started to nail the issue with new achromats that virtually fixed the problem on every camera. Now consider the AG-LA7200. Well, it's made for the DVX100 which means it's a near to perfect match with the DVX100's Lens. So, naturally, it probably would be a bit off with other glass. I think this update model will be like how Letus went with the Achromat in 35mm Adapters. Much better edge performance with a wide range of lenses, and particularly one sweet set of lenses that's perfect.

It may be impossible to find one specific solution to every piece of glass out there. And even though I use Zeiss lenses, I too would vote for Nikon glass to be the test bed for the adapter due to the popularity amongst our Niche.

Anyone disagree or agree?
 
Yeah nikon ai/ais primes would be the best test lenses, they are relatively cheap, available in quantity, razor sharp (generally) and adaptable to EOS and micro 4/3. And there's a lot of us already using them. Canon glass on the other hand isn't adaptable on a nikon so that would shut out all the D90 and D300s users.

I just mentioned in the other thread that something like the AG-LA7200 without focussing ability might be a better option provided they can make it optically better than the 54, this should make it lighter and smaller too. A screw rotational locking mechanism is a must as the press in button on the 54 doesn't lock tight enough and it rotates sometimes while you're trying to pull focus. I think 72-77mm rear thread is the way to go as you can fit almost any lens with step-up rings.

The big question is multicoating. DSLR's don't particularly like uncoated glass and I've had some contrast issues shooting with uncoated glass outdoors. My 54 is multicoated and my 50 uncoated so I'm going to conduct some more tests and see what the difference is with flaring. I'm living in the bush at the moment so there's not a lot of lights to shoot here but I'll think of something.
 
I personally think it should be multi-coated. They'll flare regardless, but the good thing is that you won't have your contrast washed out when you do flare. That is what i am not a fan of.
 
octopi_films said:
The LA7200 mounts well to most any lens but it is difficult to get your lens to focus close up and at wide open apertures.

Something with better glass and tighter specs maybe similar to the Panny adapter that will still allow the full focus range at any aperture.
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The panasonic has a closer focus than the isco's somewhere between 1-1.5m, and yeah it's quite soft wide open particularly at the edges. In the tests I did yesterday the 54 performed much better so I don't doubt that isco can make something new that works very well. The 54 is very well made and weighs 2 pounds (900gsm) if they can make something under 600gsm with better optics they will have a winner.

The front needs to have a screw thread like the 54 for mounting matteboxes and hoods. The 54 has a 95mm front thread if they could possibly shrink that down to 82mm you could mount filters to it or better still design it so that 2 or 3 72-77mm filters can be mounted between the prime and the adapter without any optical degradation.

it might be a good idea to make it focusable with just the right amount of rotation for a follow focus and sell it with a pressed on cine gear. Cine gears are expensive especially the pressed on one's and you would only need one on your adapter.
 
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